Aaron Bernstine

NEW BEAVER — When Lawrence County businessman and farmer Aaron Bernstine declared his candidacy for the 10th House District race earlier this year, he said he was sick of a state government he called out-of-touch and filled with “career politicians and political insiders.”

That hasn’t changed for Bernstine, 32, who cruised to an easy victory in April’s crowded Republican primary election. But months on the campaign trail have brought the issues facing 10th District voters into sharp focus for the candidate, who said he continues to believe job creation is the top issue for the people he is seeking to represent.

Bernstine said he has a three-point plan — “retain, grow, recruit” — to create jobs in the district if he’s elected to office.

The first key, retaining businesses already in the district, will see Bernstine reaching out to owners and companies to see what, exactly, they need to be successful, he said. The follow-up, helping them grow, means “working with those companies to see what it’s going to take to go out and hire a couple more employees to improve their organization,” he said.

“That also means working with trade schools, blue collar workers, unions — everybody across the board to ensure they have the right people to place on their teams in the right positions,” Bernstine said.

The finale part, recruiting more businesses to the area, will take efforts at the state and local levels, Bernstine said. In particular, he said, that means reforming a corporate tax code that makes Pennsylvania the second-most expensive place for companies to do business in the entire country.

“We have to sell them on the values and benefits from our employee base, as well as our great universities,” Bernstine said. “We also have to deal with the major issue of our corporate tax rate. We have to fix that so we don’t continue to lose businesses to surrounding states.”

Bernstine said he also wants to tackle another long-standing and statewide issue: reforming and improving the state’s system of education at all levels. That starts with eliminating Common Core standards from Pennsylvania’s K-12 schools, Bernstine said. He believes the standards are hamstringing students and teachers, and have resulted in a burdensome and broken system of testing.

“We need to allow local school districts and parents to make their own decisions on how their students learn best,” he said. “Exceptional teachers are being handcuffed ... which leads to an environment where it’s rigorous and useless testing of these young people that has produced no results.”

Bernstine also said he wants to focus on finding efficiencies within the system to drive more money to programs that directly affect teachers and students.

“I’m not concerned about the overall dollar amount,” he said. “My concern is, we’re not getting enough money to teachers and students to help them learn best. To me, it’s all about efficiency and creating an environment where these young people are able to go learn and then become trained for opportunities that lead to higher levels of employment.”

A third issue on Bernstine’s mind is opioid abuse within his district — something he said isn’t being effectively handled or confronted under current public policy.

“We really need to start to treat this as a public health crisis,” he said. “I don’t think you solve addicts’ problems with jails. You have to treat people to fix this.”

That said, Bernstine added, he’s for “extremely stiff penalties” for drug dealers and others operating to enable drug abuse in communities.

“These people need to have severe and extreme penalties, including forfeiture of assets that were used in any way during the sale of the narcotics,” he said.

Bernstine said he envisions a collaborative effort between government, schools and employers to confront the issue.

“I think you attack this issue from every angle and create an open dialogue so we can stop the first-time use of these drugs,” he said, “while still focusing significant time and resources on people that are already afflicted.”

Bernstine is facing incumbent Democratic Rep. Jaret Gibbons, who is seeking his sixth term in office.